


The Unstables

by Juelle



Category: Original Work
Genre: Action/Adventure, Disability, Discrimination, Drama, Dystopia, F/F, Family, Female Characters, Female Relationships, Friendship, Future, Genetic Disorders & Abnormalities, Genetics, Human, LGBTQ Character, Original Character(s), Pain, Relationship(s), Sad, Science Fiction, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-22
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2018-06-10 02:28:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 11,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6934594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Juelle/pseuds/Juelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elodie has been sent to an institution for the Unstables - the place where the different people go: she is destined to spend her life there, as nobody has ever been released. And she doesn't know why she's been put there.</p>
<p>As she gets used to her new life, of foggy minds and endless grey, she can't help feeling that they've got it wrong: if this is normal, then perhaps being Unstable is a better life.</p>
<p>Then, one day, she accidentally stumbles upon something she shouldn't see - what really happens to the people who come here. With her life on the line, she seeks her new-found friends to help her, and together they prepare to escape the institution and start a new life away from the society that never accepted them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

It was a beautiful day. In the beginning, when I tried to recall what had happened to me before, what I'd done to end up here, all I could see was the sky: the cloudless, untainted blue of it, not even an aeroplane trail breaking the perfection. It was one of those days when the grass seemed to glow greener and the trees were bushier with leaves, where everything just seemed more alive. It was the kind of day that I may never see again.  
It was this day that I was admiring out of the window when it happened. Sitting in my dining chair with my head turned towards the window, I was blissfully unaware of the usual lunchtime chatter surrounding me.  
'Elodie, I said pass the water!' Aries' voice broke my daydream and I turned back to face the table. Aries was pointing insistently at the jug next to me, her great green eyes squinted at me indignantly. Grinning, I picked it up and tilted it very slightly over my own glass, so that it trickled down the sides as slowly as possible. 'You'll have to wait till I'm finished,' I said.  
'Elodie!' she whined. Aries was only seven, and though I loved her more than anything, I also took every opportunity to tease her. She didn't mind, really. Although we were only half-sisters, we were closer than any other sisters I knew. Some people told us that half-sisters could never have the bond that 'proper' sisters do. After all, Aries and I weren't even the same colour, they'd say, as if this mattered immensely; Aries was mixed race. I disagreed with them - after all, don't you need two halves to make a whole?  
As I was holding the jug up above my glass, with Aries complaining at me on my left, I began to hear a sort of ticking noise. I frowned; I'd been hearing this noise for as long as I could remember, but usually it was so faint it was barely noticeable, at the back of my head. Sometimes it would get a little louder, but it was still very quiet. I'd asked my mum about it at first, but she didn't seem concerned. It was probably tinnitus, she said - it was very common, lots of people had it.  
This, however, was different. It was loud enough that I noticed it, even with my family talking, and the clinking of cutlery against plates, and the chewing. And - although I wasn't certain - I thought it was getting louder.  
I only had a moment to contemplate this strange event, before Aries began complaining to my parents: 'Mummy, tell Elodie that she has to pass me the water now!'  
'Elodie, give your sister the jug and stop teasing her,' my mum said, barely casting a glance in our direction before picking up her conversation with my dad where she had left off. Sighing theatrically, I leaned across the table to hand Aries the jug.   
Then everything went white.  
Pain tore across my head, burning and intense, worse than anything I'd ever felt, or could imagine feeling. Then it reached my neck, my chest, my arms, and soon my whole body was filled with pure, white-hot, searing pain. By this time, I had fallen off my chair, and I was writhing in agony on the floor. I had dropped the jug, but never heard it land. I opened my burning mouth and screamed, but made no sound. Somewhere, outside of my thick cocoon of pain that had enveloped me, I was vaguely aware of my parents by my side, of Aries tugging my arm and crying my name, over and over. I couldn't see them - somehow I had been blinded and could see nothing but white.  
The pain didn't subside: it seemed to intensify, if that was possible. I wanted it to end, I'd rather die than feel this pain for a minute longer, I had to die. I screamed again, and this time I made a sound - a high pitched wail left my mouth, and around me I could hear thumps and crashes, but I couldn't see the causes of the noise.  
The ticking noise that I had heard earlier became louder and louder, until it was all I could hear. It didn't sound like ticking anymore: and now that I could hear it properly, I realised that it had never been ticking.   
It was voices.


	2. The Hospital

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elodie wakes up in hospital with no memory of why she is there.

I woke up to silence, and the strong, stark smell of disinfectant. It took my eyes a few moments to adjust to the brightness of my surroundings. Once everything had come into focus, I found myself staring directly up at a white ceiling, edged with pale blue walls. I tried turning my head to survey the rest of the room, but found that I couldn't move it. Something was wrapped around my neck, preventing me from moving or lifting my head. I tried to lift my arms to feel what it was, but I couldn't move those either. Testing my legs and my waist, I found that I couldn't move anything at all, unless you count wiggling your hands and feet. I was in restraints.  
I began to panic a little. I wasn't claustrophobic, exactly, but I had a fear of not being able to move - it stripped me of any defence, and left me vulnerable and entirely at the mercy of other people. I decided to call for help.  
'Hello?' I called, but it came out as a feeble croak. Clearing my throat, I called again: 'Hello? Hello? Is anybody there?' Nobody came.  
Minutes passed, or possibly hours; I had no way of telling the time. At one point, I think I fell asleep again, simply for want of something else to do. Then, finally, I heard a door open, and bustling footsteps coming towards my bed. A woman stood next to me - since I couldn't move my head to look at her, I only caught a glimpse of her in the edge of my vision, but I saw her red hair and crisp nurse's uniform. She began fiddling with something on my left, but again I couldn't see what it was, only heard her rustling.  
'Who are you?' I said to her in a slurred voice. The rustling stopped. Turning around to face me, the woman peered at my face cautiously. I now had a better view of her own face, and I could see round cheeks, and a snub nose spattered with freckles. With her small, beady eyes narrowed and her lips pursed, she had the appearance of a confused hamster. 'Who are you?' I repeated, and, as if on cue, she turned sharply and shuffled quickly out of the room. I called after her, but she paid no heed to me, and once again I found myself alone.  
Normally I would have wondered where she had gone, and why she seemed so surprised to hear me speaking. Now, however, I found that, although the questions did briefly enter my mind, I had no interest in finding the answers. In fact, I felt too drowsy and dull to take an interest in anything much - even what I was doing alone in this room, tied down to a bed, didn't seem to be a mystery particularly worth solving.  
The door opened again, and a tall, slightly gaunt man was soon standing by my bed, the hamster nurse standing behind him and looking at me as if I would bite her if she dared come any closer. The man stood there for a moment, doing nothing but observing me quietly. Then he spoke, in a deep voice:  
'Hello, Elodie. How are you feeling?'  
'Who are you?' It seemed that these were the only words that could escape my mouth.  
'I'm Doctor Seymour,' he replied, 'You were put into my care after your little episode on Saturday.'  
'Saturday? What episode? What day is it now?' My questions came in a jumble, one after another. I tried to think back to this 'episode' he was referring to, but all I could recollect was the blue skies on a sunny day.  
'It's Monday today. This is your third day with us. You may not remember what happened to you, but I daresay your memories will come back soon enough. You had a... a fit, of sorts. You were very distressed when you came here, so I'm afraid we had to put you in restraints - for your own safety, as much as anyone else.'  
'Can you take them off now?'   
'Of course,' he said, although he hesitated before saying it. The hamster nurse leaned over and murmured something to him, a look of concern on her face. He replied quietly, appearing to reassure her. Then he began to undo the restraint on my neck, then my arms and legs, and finally my waist. I sat up slowly, and stretched. My limbs felt stiff, and I could feel that they hadn't moved for a while. I tried to stand up, but Dr Seymour quickly ushered me down again.  
'Don't try to stand up yet, you'll still be a little dizzy. I've just sent Nurse Jenkins to fetch you a wheelchair.' I assumed that Nurse Jenkins was the hamster nurse, as she was no longer in the room with us.  
My mind was still reeling from the fact that I had been here for three days - three days, and I couldn't remember a second of it. Why was I here? Once again, I tried to think back to my last memory - and once again, I only saw blue skies.   
And pain. So much pain. Even this new recollection of it was enough to make me shudder. I couldn't remember why I felt pain, or what happened before and after. All I could think of was that sharp, burning feeling that had started at my head, and filled my whole body. Shaking my head, I stopped trying to remember.  
A large metal door in front of my bed swung open, and a wheelchair came into the room, followed by Nurse Jenkins, still looking like she'd rather be anywhere else but here. Dr Seymour wrapped his hands around my wrists and carefully helped me off my bed and into the wheelchair. I was surprised to find that this was a much more difficult task than I had anticipated: my arms and legs seemed to have developed a mind of their own, and when I tried to move them in one direction they would fly the other way. I collapsed into the wheelchair, disgruntled and a little bemused - surely three days of lying down shouldn't make me completely lose control of my limbs?  
Dr Seymour saw my confused face, and explained to me: 'We had to give you a sedative to help you get to sleep. It will wear off soon, don't worry.' I suppose that he said this to make me feel better, but it did little to reassure me.  
Just as I had settled comfortably on the chair, Nurse Jenkins grabbed the handles and whisked me out of the room. I found myself being briskly wheeled across a long, brightly lit hallway. It was empty and silent, except for the slight squeaking of the wheels against the polished floor. With effort, I turned my head to look behind me and saw Dr Seymour following silently. His long, graceful steps made it look like he was gliding along the surface of the ground, and the lighting accentuated the hollowness of his cheekbones, the darkness of his eyes. He looked sinister, foreboding. I shivered and turned back around.  
At the end of the hall was a white door. It was this door that we entered, Nurse Jenkins first, turning around and pushing the door with her back, then pulling the handles of my wheelchair through next, with Dr Seymour last. The room looked like a small meeting room, with a table in the centre surrounded by chairs. There were three people in the room already, two women and a man all dressed in white. They paid little attention to me, but indicated a seat next to the man for Dr Seymour to sit down in. Nurse Jenkins wheeled me to an empty place, and then left the room quickly, looking very relieved to finally get away.  
As the door closed behind her, the people sitting around the table suddenly became very attentive, looking expectantly at Dr Seymour. He cleared his throat, and began to speak, addressing me but not looking at me in particular.  
'Over the past couple of days we have been running some tests, which have confirmed our suspicions on the cause of your breakdown on Friday. Following this diagnosis, we have decided unanimously that the only course of action is to transfer you to a more secure facility.' My throat went dry. So they weren't discharging me? I was going to be stuck in some unfamiliar hospital for who knows how long.  
'Wait,' I said, 'Don't I get a choice in this? Where are you sending me? Aren't you going to tell me what I have?' Ignoring the last two questions, the other man said, 'I'm afraid there is no choice in this matter, Elodie, for any of us. Legally, we cannot discharge a patient as high risk as yourself, and we simply don't have the facilities here to accommodate you.'  
'Where are my parents?' I was yelling now, 'Bring me to them and they'll tell you that you can't take me away! Where are they?' The man and one of the woman had begun moving towards me now, and I edged back as far away in my seat as possible. I wanted to run, but I couldn't make my legs stand up.  
'I'm sorry,' Dr Seymour said, not looking me in the eye, 'Your parents have made the decision that it would not be in your best interest to see them now. It will only upset you further.'  
The approaching figures moved towards me and I lashed out, stabbing at the surrounding air in a desperate attempt to keep them away from me. I was a swirling pool of emotions - fear at what would happen once they'd grabbed me, anger that they thought they could treat me like this; and worst of all, that dead feeling at the pit of my stomach that I'd been abandoned, that my parents, the people who had been there for me my whole life, weren't there for me when I needed them most. But why? All these different feelings were bubbling and spilling over, and the room around me seemed to shake.  
I was also intensely curious at where they were taking me, and why. I suddenly lurched forwards and grabbed the papers sitting at the place of the man next to me. Seeing what I was trying to do, Dr Seymour grabbed my arm and ripped the papers out of my hand. But it was too late - the damage had been done. I had seen what was written on it.

Patient 1096: requested transfer confirmation.  
Oakwood Secure Centre for patients with  
Geneticae Instabilitatem

No. No. Not this. Not me.   
I couldn't be an Unstable.


	3. A Memory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A flashback to Elodie's first encounter with an Unstable.

I remembered the day clearly. I was nine years old, Aries still a baby of barely a few months. I was excited, because my parents were taking us to the zoo that day. I saw the lions, and the zebras, and a cute furry animal with big eyes and a name that I can't recall. At lunch, I was allowed to choose whatever I wanted from a menu - and it was a big menu. After careful consideration, I went for the Chef's surprise: a mysterious stew that looked like dog food and tasted delicious. I even got to have ice cream for dessert - strawberry, my favourite.  
It looked like it was going to be a perfect day. And then, mid-afternoon, we had just begun preparing to go home because Aries was only a baby and needed her nap. I wanted to say goodbye to the lions and the zebras and the furry animal with big eyes, so as my parents packed up the car I slipped away to find them again.  
The first thing I found was the lion enclosure. I pressed my hands and face against the glass, pretending to hug the lions goodbye.  
Then the glass shattered in my hands. I stumbled to the ground, crying with shock, blood dripping from little cuts on my hands and nose. I heard shouting next to me, and saw men in the yellow zoo uniform surrounding a tall, burly man. The man was screaming, covering his face with his large hands. When one of the men put out a hand to grab him, he struck him square in the face with his bare fist. The yellow man flew back and landed a few feet from me, unconscious.  
It took twelve men to restrain him eventually. As they dragged him along on his knees, he struck the ground beneath him. This impact alone sent cracks through the solid concrete, right up to the place where I still knelt, frozen in terror. As they turned a corner, the man looked up and we made brief eye contact. I saw the wild glint in his eye, reason fighting a losing battle against some other instinct, something far stronger. And in that look, I saw more fear than I could possibly understand. And then he was gone.  
It was then that I realised that I was still kneeling in front of the lion enclosure. The lion enclosure that some minutes ago had had its glass blasted away, the only protection from me and the beasts within, gone. I looked up, and looking back at me was a lion, his magnificent mane framing a fearsome face, his huge teeth inches away from me. He moved towards me, gradually closing the small gap between his face and my own, until I could feel his heavy breath on my neck. I closed my eyes, and thought:  
I'm going to die.  
I don't want to die.  
Please don't let me die.  
When I opened my eyes he was still there, not moving. Then, he took several steps back, began running towards me, and before I could put out a hand to protect myself he had jumped right over me, and was running away. Dizzy with relief, I lay back, unable to stand up.  
The next thing I knew, my parents were knelt beside me. My mum was sobbing and kissing my face and stroking my hair. My father handed Aries to mum and lifted me in his arms, clutching me tightly but not so tight that it was uncomfortable - only enough to reassure me that he wasn't letting go.  
I spent the rest of the day in hospital, getting my hands and nose stitched up and being checked for any other damage, mental or physical. When the doctors were satisfied, I was allowed to go home. That evening, as my father tucked me into bed, he came and sat at the end of my bed and spoke in a grave voice.  
'Elodie,' he said, 'That man you saw today - he was very sick. He was what we call an Unstable. People like him, Unstables, they can't control themselves; when they get emotional they lash out and they can do unimaginable harm to anyone who gets in their way. They are very, very dangerous and I don't want you ever going near any of them. Do you promise me that, Elodie? Keep away from the Unstables.'  
I was shaking underneath my sheets. Even the word, Unstable, terrified my nine-year-old self, and when I thought back to that man, to that look in his eyes as he was hauled away, I knew my father was right. So I promised him that I would never go near an Unstable. And, with that image of the crazed, delirious man I had seen at the zoo haunting my mind, it had proved a very easy promise to keep.  
And now I was one of them.


	4. The Beginning of the End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elodie travels to the institution  
> (Sorry for the short chapter, but the next one will be pretty long)

It took me a few moments to realise that I had gone limp. In those moments, the doctors managed to overpower me, pinning my arms down against the chair. I didn't bother fighting them; all the fight had been taken out of me by those two words.  
Geneticae Instabilitatem. Genetic Instability. Unstable. These words filled my mind as they handcuffed me, as I was wheeled out of the hospital into the parking area outside, two hands still rested firmly on my shoulders in case I tried to make a run for it. I had the disease that had been the stuff of my nightmares for the past seven years. The disease that the world shied away from - the disease of the outsiders.  
I knew now why my parents hadn't come to see me, why they let these people lock me up without putting up a fight. I was dangerous: they'd never feel safe with me near them. And, to be completely honest, I didn't blame them.  
We stopped next to a police car. One of the doctors, a short woman with soft grey eyes and a gentle expression, helped me carefully into the back seat, even doing up my seat belt for me. While the other doctors looked at me with stern, slightly fearful expressions, she seemed sympathetic, as if she actually understood what a shock this had been for me. Dr Seymour climbed into the front seat next to the driver, a stout policeman, and I couldn't help asking: 'Why are you coming with me?'  
'You were put under my care, so I have to be there for your transfer,' he said stiffly, not turning to look in my direction. I lowered my gaze to my wrists sitting in my lap, and noticed that nobody had removed my handcuffs.   
Then the engine started, and I leant back on my seat, preparing myself for what was going to happen next.


	5. Oakwood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elodie arrives at the institution.

The journey only took an hour or two, but the town soon trickled away, bringing us to an endless stretch of forests and fields that I didn't recognise. I supposed that it was safer to keep the Unstables as far out of reach from ordinary society. This thought only made me ache for the life I was leaving behind: my family, my friends, everything I knew and loved. They would continue without me. Maybe they'd miss me at first, wonder why it had to happen to me. Or maybe they'd just be afraid to think of me: relieved that I was removed from their lives before I blew up and hurt them. Eventually, though, they would cease to remember me. Somebody might occasionally bring my name up, and try to put a face to the name - but all they'd see are blurred features which can't come into focus, surrounded by a mass of pale blonde waves. To Aries I'd become a childhood memory, a sister that she knew only by name.  
These melancholy thoughts were halted as we pulled up into a gravelly drive. In front of me was a square, grey building. It loomed ominously above me, casting a shadow right over the drive. The windows were barred, and there was no glass in them. There was no grass or trees within the high walls that surrounded the building, only plain, flat concrete. Dr Seymour stepped out of the car and guided me to the entrance of the area, a heavy iron gate. I was still having some difficulty walking, and found myself stumbling forwards. The policeman was at my heels, watching my every move to make sure that I didn't try to make a run for it. As if I could run.  
Above the door of the building was a large white banner reading: 'Welcome to Oakwood Centre.' Dr Seymour pushed a button next to the doorway, and spoke clearly into the speaker next to it: 'Dr Seymour, accompanying patient Elodie Wright.' There was a loud click, and then the door swung inwards. He entered, and I followed.  
I found myself in a large waiting room with a reception desk at the front. We approached the desk, but the receptionist, a woman with huge hoop earrings and pince-nez glasses, waved us over to the seats. As I sat down, realisation dawned on me that I was in a building full of Unstables. A wave of nauseated fear washed over me: I knew that it was irrational to be so afraid of people who were just like me, but I still didn't truly feel like one of them. Yes, I'd had a nervous breakdown of some sort, but I hadn't done anything unnatural. Not that I could remember, anyway. My anxiety seemed to put me in an alert state, and around me I picked up on little details that just made me more nervous. The room was spotless, but even through several layers of paint I spotted three huge slash marks on the wall opposite. What - or rather who - had caused that?  
After a few minutes, a man approached us. He was shorter than me, and bald, and he wore a thick pair of glasses with round lenses, which made him look rather owl-like. Taking Dr Seymour to one side, they exchanged murmured words, both of them glancing in my direction several times. I looked away, not wanting to make eye contact with either of them. Then Dr Seymour walked to the doorway, and left, giving me a curt nod on his departure.  
I was left with the owl man, who introduced himself as Dr Young.   
'You'll be staying in the left side of the building, with the girls aged thirteen to eighteen. We call it the Birch wing - all of them are named after trees.' I did not respond, so he continued to talk, whilst walking us in the direction he'd indicated, 'I'm afraid we don't have space for separate rooms; it's a bit overcrowded at the moment. You'll be sharing a room with five or six other girls.'   
We stopped in front of a door labelled 'Birch wing.' Dr Young reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He sifted through a few of them before finding the right one and unlocking the door.  
'I'll give you a quick tour of the place and then leave you to settle in. Patients in this ward have mandatory lessons from 10am to 12pm, and then you're free to do whatever you like. This,' he said, opening a door on our left, 'Is your classroom. 12B. You'll have your lessons here, and this is where you'll come to pick up your medication at 2pm.' Inside were seven desks in two rows, and a whiteboard at the front. Nothing else. Dr Young moved on quickly. The next door along was the dining hall. This was quite a large room with a canteen, and about twenty rows of tables and chairs. 'Breakfast is eight till nine, lunch at one and dinner at six.'   
After showing me the TV room, the Quiet room and the activities room - all of which seemed rather cramped and gloomy - he took me up to my room. It was a bleak, slightly musky room with seven identical beds in rows of three and four. The walls were painted a sickly yellow, in what seemed to be a desperate attempt to add a bit of cheerfulness to the room. In fact, it did the opposite - the brightness only made the rest of the room seem more colourless in comparison, as if the yellow drew in all the colour.  
'Well, I think I've covered everything you need to know,' said Dr Young. He just stood there for a moment, shuffling his feet back and forth as if not knowing what to say next. 'Well..' he repeated, 'Well, I suppose I can leave you to settle.' When I made no reply, he left, looking back at me as if to say something, but then changing his mind.  
I was alone again, finally. I walked around the room, trying to figure out which beds weren't occupied. Two beds next to each other at the end had no sheets on them, so I assumed they weren't taken. Collapsing on the nearest one, I buried my face in the pillow, and cried. I wept for myself, and my old life, and my parents who had abandoned me. I wept for Aries, who I would never see again, who I had loved more than anything in the world. I cried and cried just because I didn't know what else to do, and didn't have the willpower to stop.  
Eventually, I ran out of tears to spill. I dabbed at my face, and then got up to get some tissues from the bathroom. I stood in front of the sinks, staring into the mirror, and staring back at me was a skinny, blue-eyed girl with a triangular face and a pointy chin, and long blonde hair curling at her waist. My face was blotchy from all the crying, but I looked the same as I had always done. I looked weak and innocent, incapable of inflicting harm on anybody. Looking at me, nobody would ever guess that I was a hazard, a ticking time bomb that could go off at any unknown moment. Sighing, I splashed my face with cold water and blew my nose, and tried to hide the fact that I had been crying. I didn't want these other girls to think I was weak - if I was weak, then I was a target.  
In the halls, I heard a bell ring. It was the dinner bell, but I had no desire to go down and face a crowd of Unstables. Instead, I curled myself into a ball on my bed, with my arms wrapped around my knees, and fell into a deep sleep.


	6. Avie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elodie meets her new roommates.

I woke up to a feeling of something prodding me on my upper back, between my shoulder blades. I opened my eyes sleepily, and turned around. Leaning over me was a small, oval-faced girl with brown skin and long black hair, dead straight, the ends of which tickled my face. I sat up reluctantly and rubbed my eyes. It took me a moment to remember where I was. Wondering how long I'd been asleep for, I looked out of the room's only window and saw that it was dark.  
'Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you,' grinned the girl. I silently wondered what else she had been trying to achieve by poking me sharply in the back, but said nothing to her.  
'We were all just kinda wondering who you are.' At the word 'all' I suddenly noticed that we weren't alone. Besides the two of us, there were four other girls in the room: two sitting together on a bed in the corner, and the other two standing a couple of feet away from my bed, looking at me curiously.  
'I- um.. I.. uh..'  
'What's your name?' prompted the girl in front of me. When I didn't reply, she sighed.  
'Shall I start? Hi. I'm Avie. Pleased to meet you,' she said, thrusting out her hand for me to shake. My first instinct was to shy away from her, but I didn't want to make her angry. If she hated me then I may become a target - and besides, I was like her now. So I held out my own hand and cautiously grasped her palm. Avie smiled at me encouragingly.  
'Elodie,' I managed to get out.  
'Elodie. Pretty name,' she said, 'Well, Elodie, welcome to our room. You'll probably want to know everyone's names.' Without waiting for a response to this, she turned around.  
'Those two over there are Saff and Stella,' she said, pointing in turn to the two girls standing near us. Saff greeted me with a grin. She was a tall girl, with long auburn hair that seemed to be streaked gold when the light hit it at the right angle. And, looking at her, I could immediately see how she had got her name: her eyes were a startlingly clear sapphire-blue.  
Stella was at least a foot shorter than Saff. She was a bright-eyed, round-faced girl with Down's Syndrome. Her fluffy, pale-brown hair was collected in two bunches that bobbed up and down as she nodded shyly at me. Avie then indicated to the corner of the room where the other two girls sat. She informed me that their names were Ebony and Frankie.   
Ebony glanced up and smiled at me, lingering long enough for me to take in her pale, drawn face, straight nose and dark eyes, before looking down at the floor again, her silky black hair falling over her face. Frankie looked at me rather coldly, making no attempt to hide her suspicion of me or seem friendly. She had a pale face spattered with freckles, and framed by a mass of curly red hair. I couldn't help but think of that stereotype that people with ginger hair have fiery tempers - I knew plenty of even-tempered ginger people, but something told me that Frankie was not one of them.  
'Anyway, I just wanted to introduce you to everyone. You can go back to sleep now,' grinned Avie. I lay back down and turned away from all five of them, so that I was facing the empty bed beside mine. I curled back into a ball and clutched my knees when Avie spoke to me again.  
'Aren't you going to get changed?' I was about to reply that I hadn't brought anything with me, when I saw a blanket at the end of my bed, underneath a pair of neatly folded white pyjamas and a toothbrush. Somebody must have put them there while I was sleeping. I didn't want to change out of my own clothes just yet, and I was too miserable to really care about brushing my teeth, but I took the blanket, pulling it tightly over my shoulders.  
Then I went back to sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elodie gets to know what life at Oakwood will be like.

The next morning I was woken up once again by Avie. She sat by the side of my bed and tapped on my forehead with her knuckle, and giggled when I groaned and tried to swat her away.  
'You should be thanking me for waking you up in time for lessons. What class are you in?'  
'12B, I think.'  
'12B? Brilliant, you're in my class! I need someone to sit next to in lessons, because Frankie and Ebony are in the other class, 12A. Besides, they always sit together, so I'd still be alone even if they were in the same class as me. And Saff and Stella are in the year below, so they're no good either.'  
'You talk way too much, you know. I can't deal with it this early in the morning.'  
'Early? It's 9:30, for Christ's sake. Besides, you don't talk nearly enough.'  
I grinned. I couldn't help liking Avie, even if she was an Unstable and all my instincts were telling me to keep away from her. Somehow her light-hearted chatter helped me to forget what a hopeless situation we were all in.  
'Oh, I forgot. I brought you breakfast,' said Avie, offering me a slice of toast and jam that she must have taken from her plate. I was touched at the gesture, and I couldn't remember the last time I'd eaten anything, but a lingering sick feeling at the pit of my stomach completely took away my appetite, and I couldn't bring myself to eat. I shook my head, and Avie shrugged and ate it herself.  
Then the bell rang for our lessons, and we headed downstairs. As we walked to the classroom, I asked Avie, 'So why do we have lessons anyway? We'll be stuck here for the rest of our lives, so it's not really going to come in handy.' Avie shrugged, and replied, 'I don't know, really - I guess it's the law for everyone to have an education. Besides, some people here have parents who actually still care about them, and they'd kick up a fuss if we didn't have any lessons at all.' The way she said it, it sounded like parents who still care about their kids at Oakwood was a rare occurrence. I wasn't sure whether this surprised me or not.  
Avie and I sat next to each other in our lesson, Maths. We passed notes, and giggled at doodles of the teacher that Avie had drawn, a stout woman with the unfortunate name of Ms. Trump. I almost felt like I was at my school back at home, and the past few days were just a nightmarish dream.  
We went to the canteen together as well at lunch. When we'd collected our food, Avie scanned the room, looking for the others. She spotted them in the corner, and started walking over to them. I hesitated, unsure of whether to follow. I had spent the whole day with Avie - but when I looked over at the table, I saw Frankie glaring fiercely at me. It was clear that she wasn't going to welcome me with open arms. I was still dithering when Avie made up my mind for me by turning back and pulling me along with her by the sleeve of my jumper.  
I sat down in between Avie and Stella, as far away from Frankie as I could get, who was sitting in the opposite corner. Saff and Ebony greeted me cheerfully, and Stella gave me a beaming smile. This reassured me that they didn't mind my presence, and I relaxed a little.  
'How's your first day been?' Ebony asked me.  
'Pretty good,' I said, 'Well, about as good as it can get, considering.'  
'Considering what?' Frankie asked, looking up. The way she said it made me feel like I was being accused of something, and I knew I had to choose my next words carefully.  
'Well- you know. It's a bit of a shock to hear that you're going to be institutionalised for the rest of your life.'  
'Oh, I understand completely. We've all been through it. And it must be so difficult for you, being surrounded with all of us unpredictable freaks.'  
I flinched. The words really got to me, because they were so accurate: I had been afraid of being near all of them, and - to be perfectly honest - in the past I had described Unstables as unpredictable, and even called them freaks before. Even now, I was still pretty wary of them. I felt a twinge of guilt.  
Ebony elbowed Frankie, and said, 'give it a rest, Frankie. The poor girl hasn't even been here twenty-four hours.' Then she turned back to me.  
'So Elodie,' she said, 'What's your talent?'  
'My talent?' I repeated.  
'You know. Why you're in here. The Outsiders - the people who stuck us in here - may think that we're cursed, but personally I think what we can do is pretty damn cool.'  
'Wait, so you're saying that every Unstable has a different- um- talent?' This was news to me. I'd always thought that they were all like that man at the zoo seven years ago. Super Strong. Out of control. Deadly.  
'Yep, exactly. So what can you do?'  
'I- I don't know. I can't remember anything that happened before, except that I was in a lot of pain, and then I woke up yesterday in hospital. The doctor didn't really tell me what happened to me. And I've never shown any signs of having a.. talent.. before.'  
'That's strange. I've never met anyone before who doesn't know their talent.' Ebony said, frowning.  
'What's your talent?' I asked.  
'Me? I can turn invisible.' She grinned as my eyes widened, and said, 'Yeah, really. I found out when I was six: I got lost in a shop, and got really scared and cried for my mum. When I found her, I went and hugged her. She freaked out and took me straight to a kids' institution. Turns out she couldn't see what was hugging her.'  
'You've been here since you were six?'  
'Well, not here specifically. In a children's institution. But yes, my mum got me locked up when I was six years old.' She tried to say this as lightly as possible, but her eyes betrayed her. I felt an ache of sympathy for her.  
'I've known for five or six years,' said Saff, quickly diverting attention away from Ebony, 'But I only came here last year. I can turn into animals, and in school a teacher was yelling at me for being a lousy student, 'cos I got a bad mark on my test, so I yelled at her for being a lousy teacher and not teaching me right. Then I accidently turned into a rat.' She giggled, 'It was worth it, though. Turns out she was terrified of rats.'  
Although she spoke cheerfully enough, I could hear the pain in her voice, buried underneath her humour. These people had been abandoned as children, become outcasts just because of an unfortunate mistake that they had no power over. They were destined to live their lives cooped up in these institutions, with little or no contact with the outside world. I was so overcome with pity for them that I forgot that I had joined them - that the same thing had happened to me.  
They continued to share their stories. Stella could manipulate electricity - at four years old she had had a screaming tantrum that caused all the lights in her flat to flash on and off. At seven, she stuck a knife into a toaster and came away unscathed. Avie could run almost at the speed of sound. She had been discovered at ten, when someone spotted her going for an early morning run. Frankie pointedly did not share her story with me, and turned away whenever I looked in her direction.  
At 2pm I headed back to the classroom nervously. A staff member I hadn't seen before was handing out our 'medication,' and ticking our names off a list. I noticed that everyone received exactly the same pills and dosage. Apparently treatment was the same for all Unstables.  
When I reached the front of the line, the woman handing out the pills squinted at me.  
'You're new, aren't you?' she said, peering at the list of names in front of her. 'Elodie?' I nodded, and she ticked the box next to my name. Then she dropped three blue pills into my outstretched hand, and handed me a paper cup of water.  
For a moment I just stared at the pills. I didn't want to take them. Somehow the idea of taking a drug unknown to me, and having no idea what effects it would have on my mind and body, just didn't appeal to me. The staff member was staring at me expectantly, and I realised that I had to take them in front of her, probably so that she could check that I'd swallowed, and not just kept them in my mouth to spit out later.  
Knowing I couldn't drag it out any longer, I brought my palm containing the pills up to my mouth, tilting my head upwards. Then I washed them down, and into my body, with a swig of water.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a new arrival at Oakwood.

Days stretched into weeks, until I found that I had spent a month at Oakwood. It was an uneventful time: once I had settled in and got used to the routine, I found that I adjusted to my new life fairly quickly. Avie and the others accepted me as one of them quickly, and soon I was spending all of my time with them. The lessons were easy enough, and even if I had found them difficult they were clearly regarded as unimportant. It made sense - what were we going to do with an education here?  
Although I got used to Oakwood, I never found that I was happy or content here. Frankie continued to single me out, making snide comments whenever she was given the chance, and otherwise ignoring me completely. Avie told me not to let it get to me.  
'Don't worry about Frankie - she just has this idea that the world's against her, and that anyone new coming into her life is out to get her. She was like this with all of us when we first joined - well, except Stella.'  
Frankie wasn't my only problem. Another was the medication that I was forced to take daily. Once the effects had set in properly, the world seemed to lose some of its colour: the trees that I could see outside the window were less green, the sky less blue - and the drab grey building that was my new home seemed to turn a shade greyer. I stumbled through each day in a groggy haze, and each morning it took all the effort I could muster to climb out of bed.  
I used to be unusually perceptive. I noticed little things about new places and new days that I used to treasure, like the way the light would fall on the roof of my house at that particular moment in the day, or the waves of Aries' chestnut-brown hair coming to rest at her pointy elbows. I liked the sky especially: how it would look different every day, like a slate wiped clean each night, and repainted in the morning.  
Now, I only saw what I had to. I had no time to look at the sky, even though now I had all the time in the world. The drug repressed the powers of an Unstable somehow - but that wasn't the only thing it took away.  
I was even stripped of my emotions. I knew that I should feel sorrow about all that had happened to me; that I should cry again as I did on the first night. Perhaps I should feel anger too - anger at why this had to happen to me, that I had to be taken from my family and my happy, carefree life. Instead, I just felt empty. My homesickness was a hollow ache that was there constantly, and worsened when I focused on it. Sometimes I even found myself longing for the feeling of pure, white-hot rage, or nauseating fear.  
My family had not come to visit me. I had expected this, of course: I knew exactly how my parents felt about Unstables, since it was a feeling I had shared not long ago. For that reason, I still couldn't blame them. It didn't make me miss them any less though. My biggest regret was that Aries would take up this view herself. Influenced by my parents in the same way as I had been, she would come to think of me in disgust, to feel only relief at my removal from her life. I prayed that this wouldn't happen too soon - for now, let her innocence remain pure and untainted. Let her continue to see the world as a child sees it: the way they want it to be.   
So these endlessly bleak days continued, until one day I walked into my room along with Avie, and stopped in my tracks. Sitting cross-legged and hunched over on the spare bed next to mine, facing away from the two of us and at the wall, was a girl.  
When I saw her, the ticking noise that had been in my head for as long as I could remember started again, quietly. I didn't realise until it began again that I hadn't heard it since I had woken up in hospital a month ago.  
She must have heard our footsteps as we came into the room, but did nothing to indicate that she was aware of our presence. Avie, friendly as always, stepped towards her bed and began to speak.  
'Hi,' she said, 'I'm Avie. I guess you're joining our room. What's your name?' The girl turned around slowly, so that I had a full view of her face. There was something mystical about the way she looked. She had a wide, heart-shaped face and olive coloured skin. Her dark brown hair hung in loose curls and rested on her shoulders, and her large brown eyes looked up and made contact with mine.  
In that brief look, I saw something that I didn't understand, but at the same time I understood completely. Our eye contact lasted a second at most, but that second unravelled in my mind to fill a much larger space. I was filled with a warm tingling feeling from my head, right down into my feet. It was as if, by looking into her eyes, I was staring into her very soul; it was as if I knew her already, although I'd never met her before.  
She turned back around again and went back to gazing at the wall, her shoulders hunched, without answering Avie's question. But she didn't need to. I already knew her name.  
Eve.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elodie has an unexpected visitor.

'That girl is getting on my last nerve,' Frankie said angrily, biting into her sandwich. 'I mean, is she incapable of human interaction or something?'  
The girl - Eve - hadn't spoken to anyone since she'd arrived two days ago. Each person in my room had made attempts to talk to her, and every time she had shut them down by staring at them and then turning away. Even Frankie had tried to speak to her - albeit rather forcefully - which was more than she'd done for me since I got here. At lunchtime yesterday she had sat on a table alone, and today she did the same.  
I was the only person who hadn't tried to talk to her. Somehow I understood that simply speaking would not be enough to bring her out of her shell. It was strange: somehow her odd behaviour made sense to me, although if somebody were to ask me why she acted the way she did I wouldn't be able to explain it. She was almost like a riddle - a riddle that I desperately wanted to solve.  
'Give her time,' Ebony said, in response to Frankie, 'She's probably still in shock from being sent here. You know that everyone reacts differently - some people just can't cope.'  
'Well obviously she won't cope if she doesn't even try to! She just sits there, staring into space, like walls are so damn interesting. And maybe she didn't get the memo that there's a thing called manners - for example, responding to people when they ask her a question.'  
I glanced over to where she was sitting. Just like Frankie had said, she was staring into space. But she didn't look blank, like people usually do when they're zoned out - in fact, she looked the opposite. Her dark eyes gazed intensely ahead, and although they were fixed and unmoving, you could tell that they were taking in everything. Almost like me - before the drugs had stripped me of my senses.  
Yes, Eve definitely was a mystery worth solving - and I would be the one to do it.  
\-----  
That evening, I was sitting in the TV room with Avie and Stella, watching some documentary on aquatic plants - Oakwood didn't exactly have a huge variety of channels. Frankie and Ebony were up in our room, and Saff was in the visiting room with her parents. Visiting time was every Wednesday in the afternoon, but Saff was the only one of us who ever actually had any visitors. Here, it was a rarity to have a family and friends who still cared about you: Unstables were generally not worthy of love. So it surprised me immensely when a staff member poked her head through the door to inform me that I had a visitor.  
I got up, leaving Avie and Stella, and made my way to the visiting room, puzzled. Considering how much I missed my family on a daily basis, I should have been overjoyed to hear that one of them had come to visit me - but my head was too full of questions to really take it in. Why come now, just when I was starting to believe I would never see them again? And - more troublingly - were they here because they felt that they were obligated to, or did they really still care about me? I wondered whether it was my mum or dad who had come to visit - one of them must have stayed home with Aries. It was probably my mum: after all, my dad was technically only my stepfather, although he'd never shown signs before of loving me any less than Aries. And although both of them feared and disliked Unstables, it was my dad who had the real problem with them. I could recollect many occasions in which he had sat at the breakfast making faces of disgust, before sharing with us some article about damage caused by an Unstable: a man had vanished mysteriously after an encounter with one of them; a hospital had closed after a strange new disease began spreading through it, thought to be created by an elderly Unstable patient. He would fling the article before our faces, and say:  
'These people - they're no better than animals. They have no self-control, no morality. I hope every one of them is caught and locked up, where they belong.'  
When I reached the door to the visiting room I paused for a moment, taking a deep breath in nervous anticipation, before pushing open the door slowly. I spotted her before she saw me. Sitting in the plastic waiting chair, pale-faced and worried, legs that weren't quite long enough to reach the floor swinging to and fro. Aries. Hearing the door swinging open, she turned towards me, and her little face lit up when she saw me.  
'Elodie!'  
She ran up to me and hugged me tightly. She only came up to my waist, even though I was small for sixteen. I wrapped my arms around her and lifted her up, swinging her round in the air like I used to. She giggled with joy, a sweet, high-pitched fairy-laugh, and I felt like I was back at home again. Then the moment ended, and I looked around, concerned.  
'Aries, where's mum and dad? Are one of them waiting outside for you?' I felt that I could cope with the idea that they didn't want to be near me, as long as they let me have Aries. But Aries was looking at the floor, holding her arms behind her back and shuffling her feet, and I knew something was wrong.  
'Aries,' I repeated, 'Where's mum and dad?'   
'They... They wouldn't come.'  
'You didn't come here all alone, did you?' I was horrified. How could my parents let delicate little Aries travel up here alone - that was at least eighty miles.  
'I didn't have a choice. I missed you so much, Elodie. I just wanted to see you.'  
'How on Earth did you manage to get here?' I asked.  
'I found out where you were. Mummy and Daddy wouldn't tell me where you'd gone, only that you were very sick, and I couldn't see you. But I wanted to see you, so I listened to them talking about you, and I heard them say Oakwood. I looked up Oakwood, and took a train here. I needed to take a ten pound note out of Mummy's purse, but I'll pay it back.'  
I blinked. My head was spinning as I tried to comprehend what I'd just been told. Seven-year-old Aries had figured out how to get here, stolen from our mother, and taken a train all the way from London just to see me. When I thought about everything that could have gone wrong.. if Aries had got lost on the way here and couldn't find her way back; or if she'd been hit by a car when crossing a road; or if our parents found out - I was pretty sure that they wouldn't easily forgive her for this. As I thought this, I had another realisation.  
'Aries, mum and dad will know you're missing. It's six in the evening, they'll be out of their minds with worry.'  
'No they won't,' she replied, and I detected a hint of pride in her voice, 'I already thought of that. I told them that I was going to Leah's house for a sleepover. They won't check, because she only lives down the road, and we're always having sleepovers.   
Although my mind was still reeling with fright at the thought of the huge journey she'd just been on, I couldn't help admiring her. Tiny little Aries had planned this all out - I'd always known she was intelligent, but this went far beyond my expectations of what she was capable of.  
'Elodie,' she said, looking at me nervously. 'Why do you have to stay here?'  
'I'm sick,' I said, not quite able to look her in the eye, 'Just like they said.' I wanted to be honest with her, but I didn't want to lose the love of the only person in the world who had any of it left for me. If I told her, she'd be terrified of me - my parent's influence on her must have caused her to fear Unstables almost as much as I once had. Words could not describe how much I loved Aries, and even if I was never to see her again, I wanted her to leave loving me back. But then she shocked me with what she said next.  
'Are you an Unstable?'  
I stared at her in disbelief.   
'How did you know that?' I asked, forgetting to deny it in my surprise.  
'When I looked up Oakwood to try and get here - it says on the website that it's an institution. That's where they put Unstables, isn't it?'  
When I didn't reply, she continued: 'You can tell me if you are, Elodie. I love you loads, and you'll still be my favourite person.'   
I hugged her then - bending down so my face was at the level of hers, I wrapped my arms around her narrow shoulders, burying my face in her soft hair to hide the tears that were spilling from my eyes.  
Living with the knowledge that my parents no longer loved me hurt. I'd accepted it, but it hurt like hell. I'd always taken it for granted that their love for Aries and I was unconditional: that it would be there no matter what. When it went away, I felt completely alone and empty, like I had walls closing in on me that caged me in, and separated me from everyone. I hadn't fully realised it until now, but if Aries had done the same to me, those walls would crush me: losing the last person in the world who still loved me would cut the strings that connected me to the outside world once and for all. But I hadn't lost her. The string still remained.  
Then Aries said, 'I have to go home now, but I'll visit again as soon as I can.'  
'No,' I immediately replied, though it killed me to say it, 'It's not safe. You can't travel alone.'  
Aries ignored this.  
'Bye, Elodie,' she said sadly, and then she darted quickly to the door and exited the building.  
'Wait! Aries! It's too dangerous!' I said, starting to run after her, but when I stuck my head out of the door she was already gone. Then a staff member ushered me back in again, and I knew I couldn't follow her. I was angry with myself for letting her go. What if she got lost on the way home? What if someone hurt her? I knew I'd never forgive myself if anything happened to her.  
When I opened the door into the hall I gave a start. Frankie was standing outside the door.  
'What the hell are you doing?' I said angrily, furious that she'd been spying on me.  
She didn't respond to this, just looked at me. For a moment, neither of us said anything, just stood there surveying each other. Then she spoke.  
'I had a brother,' she said quietly. Then she walked away, leaving me alone in the empty hall.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eve continues to ignore her roommates, but Elodie is still intrigued.

Something changed in Frankie after our encounter in the halls. Although she didn't mention what she had said to me again, I knew that something about that day had altered her opinion of me. She no longer glared at me with flashing eyes; the opportunistic spiteful comments stopped; and she started actually talking to me. Pretty soon she was as friendly with me as with anyone else in our room. I still wasn't sure what had brought about this change: but I definitely wasn't complaining.   
Now that we were more friendly - and I may even go as far as saying we were friends - I began to learn more about Frankie: I got to see the personality behind the cold mask that had earned her the friendship of all the other people in our room. She had a wicked humour, for a start. She was the first to make a sharp joke about someone, but somehow when you looked at her grinning face, with her eyes crinkled at the corners, it was impossible to be offended.  
I also noticed that she was very protective of Stella - fiercely protective. God help anyone who said anything against Stella. On one occasion, she was telling us about what had happened in her lesson that day. The teacher had told them that they had to pair up to discuss how to solve a maths problem, and Stella turned to the girl sitting next to her. The girl - Marie - had looked at her witheringly, and said something along the lines of: 'I think I'll talk to someone who might actually know the answer,' before turning to the girl on her other side.  
Frankie shot up out of her seat, hands banging on the desk.  
'Which one is she?' she asked, her voice seething with rage. Her usually green eyes looked almost black, and flashed furiously. Girls from the tables around us turned to look at what was causing the commotion, and Stella pulled at her sleeve, mortified.  
'Don't do anything, Frankie!' she said in alarm, 'It's fine, really. Anyway, she was right - I didn't know the answer.' Frankie sat back down reluctantly, still simmering.  
'That's not the point, Stella, and you know it. You can't let people get away with saying things like that to you. It's just not right.'  
There were many things I didn't understand about Frankie. I didn't know why she acted this way about Stella; all of us cared about her immensely, and were protective of her, but she really took it to the extreme. And where did all this rage come from? She had so much hatred in her: and alright, I knew things hadn't been particularly easy for her - but we all had our troubles. All of us were stuck here.  
\-----  
During Eve's sixth week at Oakwood, I decided that things couldn't continue like this. She still hadn't spoken a single word to anyone, and in turn everyone had given up trying to speak to her. She still sat alone at every meal, staring into space, her mind both right here and somewhere else entirely.  
So at dinner, I suddenly spoke up.  
'Let's go and sit with Eve.'  
Everyone turned to look at me as if I had grown another head. For a moment nobody spoke, and then Frankie broke the silence.  
'Are you mad?'  
'No, I'm not mad,' I said, slightly irritated, 'I just think that it's a shame for her to be alone day in and day out.'  
'Elodie,' Avie said seriously, 'We've all tried speaking to her. She wouldn't listen to us. She wants to be alone.'  
'You don't know that,' I retorted insistently, 'None of us know the first thing about her because we've given up trying. We don't know what she's been through before she came here - but we all know that it can't have been easy. There's no harm in trying to get to know her a little.'  
'No,' Frankie said slowly, 'We don't know what she's been through. But whatever it was, it's not enough for her to sit around feeling sorry for herself. It's not enough for her to act superior to all of us, as if we're not even worth her acknowledgement. She doesn't deserve us trying to get to know her, because she certainly hasn't tried with us at all.'  
I was really annoyed now, although I wasn't entirely sure why. There was some truth to what Frankie said - I couldn't deny that. Maybe that was what was so irritating about it.  
'You do what you want,' I said, addressing the whole table, 'But I'm going to sit with Eve.' I stood up, my chair scraping along the ground, and picked up my tray. Then I began to walk across the dining hall towards Eve. Behind me, I heard the scraping of more chairs, and I turned to see Avie and Saff following me. I smiled at them warmly. Then Ebony stood up and joined us. Stella was murmuring something softly to Frankie, who sighed crossly before picking up her tray and following the rest of us. I was more relieved than I dared admit: having friends at this place really did make life more bearable, and I hated the idea of falling out with all of them.  
We reached Eve's table. She was staring down at the table, pushing the peas around her plate with a plastic fork. Her meal was untouched. She looked up at us expressionlessly, making no objection as we sat around her, me at her left. Then she went back to rolling the peas on her plate. She said nothing to any of us, barely acknowledging that we were there. But somehow I knew she wanted us to stay.


End file.
